A huge pod of 75 - 80 Bottlenose dolphins was captured yesterday in Taiji, Japan and netted off in the Cove Photo: Sea ShepherdA huge pod of 75 - 80 Bottlenose dolphins was captured yesterday in Taiji, Japan and netted off in the Cove. Today, its members will be subjected to the captive selection process, meaning the dolphins deemed “most beautiful” by the killers will be selected for lives in captivity, many of them sold to marine parks and swim-with-dolphin encounters around the globe for hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Those deemed “not beautiful enough” by the killers (those with nicks or scars) will be brutally slaughtered for human consumption despite the fact the meat contains high levels of mercury and other toxins. The Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian team on the ground in Taiji will be live streaming the captive selection and massacre from the shores of the killing Cove today, as they bear witness to the fate of this terrified pod who have remained huddled in the Cove all night without access to food or shelter. We anticipate going online from the Cove with our live stream today at ~ 1 pm PT. Please spread the world by sharing our URL with your audience: http://livestream.seashepherd.org

After yesterday’s capture, the killers were seen moving current captives from pen to pen, crowding them together to make room for the many newly stolen dolphins they will undoubtedly take captive today. The enormous Bottlenose pod means the killers will make serious payday, as this is the species sought after by marine parks and swim-with-dolphin encounters. Many young females will be taken, as they are the best breeding stock, and the very tiniest babies will likely be dumped at sea, where without their mothers or the safety of their pod, they will likely not survive. The remainder of the pod will be brutally slaughtered for their meat.

The slaughter of 20,000 dolphins, porpoises, and small whales occurs in several regions throughout Japan each year. In Taiji, starting on September 1st and usually continuing through March of the following year, fishermen herd whole families of small cetaceans into shallow bays and mercilessly stab and drown them to death with a metal spike inserted into their blowhole to sever their spine. They slowly bleed to death and drown in their own blood. These inhumane, brutal killings would not be allowed in any slaughterhouse in the world.

Taiji’s annual slaughter of dolphins was virtually unknown until 2003 when Sea Shepherd — an international non-profit marine conservation organization — globally released covertly obtained footage and photographs of the now infamous bloody Cove.